Organizations

Fostering Cultural Pluralism in Practice

Kirkayak Kultur

Kirkayak Kultur is a nonprofit cultural association created in 2011 in Gaziantep, a city in the Southeastern Anatolia Region of Turkey. Its members have different backgrounds, comprising artists, scholars and NGO workers. It aims to support different forms of art production and events in Anatolian cities, such as film screenings, performances, concerts, photography exhibitions, music and literature activities, as well as to connect artists from Turkey, the Middle East and Europe. Its cultural work seeks to contribute to the development of mutual understanding and the overcoming of prejudices through art, and to promote solidarity through inclusive artistic projects for disadvantaged communities.

Über den Tellerrand

Über den Tellerrand was founded in 2014 as a nonprofit association dedicated to bringing together citizens and refugees across Europe. It organizes cooking classes open to everyone in which refugees prepare an authentic meal from their home country. In the process of learning how to prepare a new dish, newcomers and citizens share stories and get to know each other. The recipes are also gathered in cookbooks which are sold by the association. Their project ‘Kitchen on the Run’ allows the cooking classes to travel across borders, having visited cities in Italy, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden in 2016. Über den Tellerrand has been networking with and consulting similar initiatives across Europe so they can also organize culinary and cultural events that foster intercultural friendships.

Sharehaus Refugio

Sharehous Refugio, a project initiated in 2015 and situated in south Berlin, houses 50 people, both Germans and newcomers from Europe, Africa and the Middle East. These people not only co-inhabit but constitute a thriving community-based social enterprise. Sharehaus Refugio has a community café and offers cultural and educational activities for its inhabitants and the community at large, such as meditation and language classes, parties, a Christmas market, and city tours led by refuges. The project was inspired by the experiences of Sven Lager and Elke Naters, who had previously developed a similar but temporary project in South Africa; their project in Berlin was developed through their partnership with Berliner Stadmission, a Christian community housing organization who owned the building where Sharehaus Refugio currently operates.

Flüchtlinge Willkommen (Welcome Refugees)

Flüchtlinge Willkommen was created in 2014 by Mareike Geiling and Jonas Kakoschke, a young German couple who decided to take action when the arrival of refugees began making headlines across Europe. Their project seeks to provide refugees with an alternative to governmental housing policies which often place them in camps in the outskirts of cities. It offers an online platform through which refugees can find ‘flatshares’ and live together with local residents and citizens. The project hence links refugees seeking housing to locals who have a room or more to spare, while also assisting them in all issues related to co-habitation, and offering financial solutions so that refugees can have access to private rooms. The project believes that when refugees are able to live in another family’s or individual’s home, they are more effectively included in the new society, as they have an opportunity to learn the local language faster and create bonds with people who have different cultural backgrounds.

KUNSTASYL

KUNSTASY is a project which aims to transform a residential home for asylum seekers and displaced persons, located in the industrial area of Staakner Straße, in Berlin, into a space for communication, self-expression, play, and connection with locals through the creation of artistic interventions. The residential home used to be owned by the department of health and was renovated to house approximately 100 refugees. Spearheaded by artist Barbara Caving, the project seeks to turn it into a space for common living, and not simply for accommodation, where locals and migrants can use art as a catalyst and transformational tool for inclusive residence in Berlin.